After Amazon and Google, Facebook at $41 billion is now the third largest internet company in the US. The position was held by eBay earlier, which has fallen to a total estimate of $39.3 billion. Amazon is valued at $74.4 billion and Google, at $192.9 billion. The valuations have a huge difference, each one nearing double of the last. From that, it is clear that it would take Facebook some time to climb further up the ladder.

However, Facebook is optimistic about this. It is not yet a public company and already has made it to this level of success.

The valuation of Facebook has no solid grounds as reliable sources (each) have reported the valuation differently on multiple occasions. Just this year in September, Forbes estimated Facebook at a net valuation of $23. However, Bloomberg writes,

The value of Facebook on New York-based SecondMarket has more than tripled in the past year, according to the person, who declined to be identified because SecondMarket does not publicly release trading data. SharesPost Inc., another private exchange, estimated Facebook was worth $40.9 billion last week. That’s up almost 50 percent in the past month, according to the Santa Monica, California-based company.

Facebook earns all its revenue from ads and virtual goodies. For a huge website like Facebook (in terms of users base), conversion rates for ads are automatically high giving it a higher probability of making a better income. This explains the profit volumes as well.

Chinmoy Kanjilal is a FOSS enthusiast and evangelist. He is passionate about Android. Security exploits turn him on and he loves to tinker with computer networks. He rants occasionally at Techarraz.com. You can connect with him on Twitter @ckandroid.